James Lunsford was a Confederate Civil War Veteran.[ii]
He was also a Free Will Baptist and Methodist Minister. According to
genealogist Elaine Maduzia (his great-great granddaughter), Lunsford moved to
Alabama shortly after his marriage. They came to Texas in a wagon train and
settled in Cherokee County in 1877. She also stated that James P. Lunsford was
one of the founding members and minister of the Old Prospect Church. It is
known that the Methodists used the old meeting house as well as the Baptists.
Some records indicate he was ordained twice – in August of 1875, by Methodist
Episcopal Church South at Greenville, Alabama and in 1877 by the First Free
Will Church, Cherokee County, Texas.[iii]
If this is correct, records in the Texas Free Will Baptist Association may
suggest that he left the Free Will Baptists and went back to the Methodist
Church – at the least the Texas Association removed him from their body in 1894
regarding doctrinal differences.[iv]
Almedia Lunsford Nelson often told a story of Jim Lunsford being
wounded in the Civil War. He received a wound in his forehead and the doctors
used a silver dollar to replace the bone loss there. She said one could still
see the imprint of the coin years afterward.[v]
Jim and Sarah had ten children. The Lunsfords’ lives continues in the
families and churches in southern Rusk County and northern Nacogdoches County,
as well as other places to which the family has spread. Charter members of Old
Prospect Baptist Church at Sand Flat, Rusk County, Texas, Mallie Marie Matlock
Strong and Ralph Matlock – children of J. H. Matlock and Etta Elizabeth
Lunsford – were grandchildren of Jim Lunsford. He also has great-grandchildren
and great-great-grandchildren that are or have been members of Old Prospect Baptist Church, as
well as other relatives. Jim Lunsford’s descendants who are members of Mount Union Free Will Baptist Church include Mary Wharton, Maxine Gaddy, John Connell, Robert Little, and possibly several others. He has descendants in other churches, of course, but these two are the most closely related to where he and his family lived.
[i]
The day also honored Lunsford’s wife Sarah
and his brother Isaac
Lee Hilliard Lunsford.
[ii] According
to his Confederate Pension application (Comptroller's File No. 14264), Lunsford
served as a Private in the 1st Alabama Artillery Co D, enlisting Sept. 6, 1862.
The Roll of Prisoners at New Orleans, La. (From Book No. 2, Folio No. 232)
states he was captured at Fort Gaines, Aug. 8, 1864 and transferred to Ship
Island Oct. 25, 1864. It appears that Lunsford was a member of the Golden
Drain Masonic Lodge, of which P. M. C. Winder was a member. Winder was son-in-law to Lemuel Herrin.
[iii] Perhaps
the meaning is “Free Will Baptist”. It is not clear with which church he was
affiliated after 1877, but the assumption has been that he was a Methodist
preacher in the Prospect Church. In correspondence Elaine Maduzia revealed that
she has lost most of her records due to a computer crash, and that this one
online is all that survived – so she could not document the source of this
information.
[iv]
“We find one minister, brother J. P. Lunsford, out of harmony with our church,
advocating usages not in keeping with the teaching of our church. We are
reliably informed that he has declared himself independent of our body,
pronouncing us heterodox in doctrine and usages. We recommend that the name of
this brother, J. P. Lunsford, be dropped from the list of ministers.” From a
report on the state of the churches in the Minutes
of the Seventeenth Annual Session of the Texas Free Will Baptist Association,
October 19-20, 1894 (pages 3-4) Rusk County churches Isabel’s Chapel, Old
Prospect, and Sharron have no information in the statistical table (p. 9). Under
the circumstances, this implies, but doesn’t prove, that Isabel’s Chapel and
Sharron were in J. P. Lunsford’s sphere of influence.
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